Tuesday 31 July 2012 19.01 EDT
First published on Tuesday 31 July 2012 19.01 EDT

Syria's government is responsible for mass human rights violations that amount to crimes against humanity in Aleppo and surrounding areas, according to a report by Amnesty International.

As fighting for the northern city continues, the Amnesty report says President Bashar al-Assad's security apparatus reacted with "characteristically reckless and brutal use of force" that led to peaceful demonstrators being killed and injured.

Aleppo, the largest and most populous city in Syria, was relatively calm until May this year, with smaller demonstrations than elsewhere. But security forces and government-backed shabiha militia "routinely" used live fire against peaceful protests, killing and injuring protesters and bystanders, including children, according to the report.

Amnesty also says the families of people killed by state security forces were pressured into signing statements saying their loved ones had been killed by "armed terrorist gangs".

In June, the gruesome killing and mutilation of three young medics who were providing emergency medical care to wounded protesters sent shockwaves through the city. Several activists told Amnesty they feared being tortured to death or summarily executed if arrested. "Being caught with medical supplies is worse than being caught with weapons," one is quoted as saying.

A nurse who works in an Aleppo hospital described his arrest by air force intelligence in early 2012: "They wanted to know about medical treatment to injured demonstrators: who treats them, where, and who pays for their treatment and for the medical supplies. I didn't give them any information. I was detained for three weeks and they tortured me every day.

"They beat me with cables; they beat me so much that I had open wounds. The cable cut right into my flesh. They subjected me to the dulab [the 'car tyre' torture method whereby the victim is forced to bend at the waist and a tyre is put over the bent body, keeping body and arms and legs immobilized while the victim is beaten] and to the shabeh [where the victim is kept in stress positions, sometimes suspended from the wrists, for long periods]. They put a gun to my head and threatened to kill me. I thought they were going to kill me."

In early July, the Syrian army moved into Aleppo in force with tanks and combat helicopters, shelling residential districts with battlefield weapons including mortar and artillery, which are imprecise and should not be used in civilian areas.

Amnesty describes the onslaught as a "predictable development which follows the pattern of abuses by state forces across the country".

It adds: "The Syrian authorities have gone to great lengths to shield themselves from scrutiny; notably they have denied or greatly restricted access to the country to international media and human rights organisations. However, even the most stringent restrictions can no longer obscure the gravity of the human rights situation, which has continued to deteriorate for many months."

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's researcher, writes: "The peaceful demonstrations I witnessed in different parts of the city invariably ended with security forces firing live rounds at peaceful protesters, their reckless and indiscriminate shooting often killing or injuring bystanders as well as demonstrators.

"It is incumbent on the international community to provide justice to the Syrian people and to ensure those responsible for such grave violations and crimes are held to account."

The situation in Syria should be referred to the international criminal court "without further delay", Amnesty urges.

Any such referral would have to be made by the UN security council, where Russia and China have used their vetoes to block any punitive steps against Assad.